Air and Earth
by Shmeeko
Summary: Air carried her ahead, ahead of herself and ahead of reality to things that did not yet exist.  Earth kept her rooted, levelheaded and strong.  Had she remained true to the earth in that instance, she would've been spared the heartbreak of his next words.


**Just pounding out random ideas that pop into my head. This would take place somewhere in Book: Earth. Could be Taangy, doesn't have to be, though.**

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><p>"<em>I hope this doesn't change the way you feel about me..."<em>

_She stood there again, alone and in the spotlight of her parent's heartbreak and devastation. She could feel the tension in the air, the weighty atmosphere making everything seem sluggish and slow. Her head remained tilted down, directing a sightless stare into the floor, shoulders pressed down by the weight of her parent's conflicting emotions._

_She had laid everything in front of them, fearlessly, to follow her heart which had been carried away by the wind._

"_...Mom, Dad?"_

_Why were they so silent? Could they not see, this is who she was meant to be? Did they not accept her the way she was? Was she...really that much of a disappointment to them?_

"_Toph, we will always love you."_

_Her lips stretched, pulling upwards in a smile. But again, her heart had eagerly grabbed onto the promising breezes of the futures – it was straying from the concrete, predictable earth. Air carried her ahead – ahead of herself and ahead of reality to things that did not yet exist. Earth kept her rooted, levelheaded and strong. Perhaps, had she remained true to the earth in that instance, she would've been spared the heartbreak of the next words to colour the empty space before her sightlessness._

"_But this...this is so much to accept...too much. You are not our daughter, Toph, not the one we know and love the way we have for so many years. You have to understand..."_

"_But...you're my parents!"_

_Warmth and wetness pooled in the girl's eyes, her fists clenching at her sides. Her world seemed to get impossibly darker._

"_Of course we are, but are you our daughter?"_

"_I don't...I am! I am your daughter! I always have been!"_

"_Our daughter...our daughter was quiet and obedient, calm and well-mannered...this...this girl before us...she is a stranger, Toph. Who are you?"_

_She could feel the warmth spilling from her eyes, drawing gentle lines down the skin of her cheeks. She could taste salt and earth on her tongue._

"_I'm your daughter! Your little girl!"_

"_Who are you?"_

"_Your baby! Your baby girl!"_

_Toph's strength shook. She could feel the earth around her crumbling, shaking and eroding under the force of her parent's words. She shivered and quaked, her arms and legs lacking the stability she was so renowned for. Just as the earth did around her, she crumbled: falling to her knees in a terrible heap, holding her head in her hands and relinquishing her control. The dam broke and her eyes overflowed, hastened by childish sobs and pained screams._

_Familiar voices relentlessly swirled about her. Their words struck with all the force of a hammer and resonated like to the ringing of a bell._

"_Don't be foolish, I don't have a daughter."_

"_Toph."_

"_Who are you?_

"_It's only to protect you, dear."_

"_Toph!"_

"_Why are you here?"_

"_We'll keep you safe, always."_

"_I'm Toph. My name is Toph!"_

"_No, no. We don't have any children. It's better that way."_

"_Who is Toph?"_

"_Toph!"_

Toph sat up abruptly, instinctively inhaling air and dirt and dust, then regretting the reflex as she was left coughing and sputtering in the quiet. She could taste salt and earth on her tongue.

When she'd regain her composure and managed to swallow whatever irritation stuck in her throat, she was still. Someone was crouching right in front of her, someone with a steady heartbeat, light breath and a lithe figure.

"What are you doing, twinkletoes?"

"You were talking in your sleep."

Toph had habitually lowered her head, hiding her eyes behind a curtain-like fringe of hair. That way, there was no possibility that the air bender in front of her could've seen the way her eyes widened in alarm. Almost instantaneously, she thought of questions.

_What was I saying?_

_What did you hear?_

_How much do you know?_

But instead of asking any of these, she shrugged and leaned back on her hands.

"Happens to the best of us."

The boy in front of her shifted, moving to sit cross-legged on the earth below them, folding his hands in his lap. Toph couldn't help a grimace as the questions resurfaced.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Fine, why wouldn't I be?" On the defensive, the earth bender folded her arms across her chest and huffed.

Aang made some noises that sounded as if he was mulling his next words over in his head, or at least was hesitant to share them.

"Well...you were talking...about your parents..."

Off to her right, Katara shifted, her breathing picking up in pace. Again Toph huffed, suddenly swiping forward and grabbing the avatar by his collar.

"Come on, twinkletoes," she hissed, getting to her feet and dragging the boy along with her, ignorant to his hushed protests and awkward flailing as he tried to find his balance. She said nothing further until they were far enough away from camp that she could monitor their comrade's sounds in the night, but they could not do the same to her.

Without hesitation, she whirled and forced the air bender up against a large rock, tightening her grip on his collar to forbid him from squirming away.

"What did you hear?" she demanded, unafraid to get right up into the boy's face as she spoke.

The avatar held up his hands in surrender

"Not much, honest! Just that..." Aang trailed off and Toph could feel his heart rate fluttering close to her hand. He twiddled his thumbs between them, hesitating.

"Spit it out!"

"Well you were crying...and calling out for your mom and dad. You kept muttering 'I'm Toph, my name is Toph' over and over...I thought you were having a nightmare."

Toph scoffed and released the elder bender, dusting herself off and turning away from him. He didn't move from against the rock.

"Yeah, because people typically cry and scream during good dreams..."

Toph couldn't see the Avatar's sympathetic expression, but she had a feeling there it was there. Her fists clenched at her sides.

"It was nothing, twinkletoes, don't worry about it." Then and there, Toph decided she was done with this conversation. She turned to head back to camp, though in the back of her mind she was aware that Aang had yet to move. When he spoke again, she understood why.

"This isn't the first night it's happened, either..." he said slowly, not turning towards her. The earth bender stopped where she was, staring blankly ahead as she listened. "It's been just about every other night since we left Gaoling..."

Toph was quiet for some time, mulling the boy's words over in her head. Eventually, she turned back to him, speaking carefully and quietly.

"...Have the others heard it?"

Aang shook his head and made a dissenting noise.

"...But you have?"

"I'm a light sleeper," the boy confessed, "and...well, when I wake up and hear it I kind of...bend the sound away from Katara and Sokka..."

"You bend the sound?"

"It's just manipulating the air around it to carry the noise awa-"

"I don't want an explanation. I want a reason."

"Why?"

"Yes, why. Stupid."

"Well...I figured you didn't want everyone to know about it..."

The earth bender felt a warmth wash over her, starting with a flush in her face. She forced herself to breathe evenly, to steady the sudden fluttering of her heart. It was just in the boy's nature to be considerate of others, it wasn't any sort of special treatment on her behalf...but that didn't make her any less appreciative of his efforts to keep her moments of weakness a secret.

"I don't," she snapped in an effort to hide her gratitude, "I don't even like _you_ knowing about it, twinkletoes."

"I'm sorry...I was going to keep pretending I didn't know...but you were awfully loud this time, and when I called your name you wouldn't wake up...I thought maybe something was wrong, so I came over to see if I could do something to help when you just sat up on your own."

Back at camp, Sokka rolled over.

"...You're not going to tell them, are you?"

"I've kept it a secret so far, I'm not about to change that now." Toph said nothing in response, folding her arms in front of her once again and staring blankly in Aang's direction. He stood still and calm for a few minutes in the silence, before finally stepping towards the girl and speaking quietly again. "What's wrong, Toph?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But you want to keep dreaming about it?"

"Watch it, twinkletoes."

"I'm only asking because I'm worried. You sound really scared and unhappy when you have those dreams...I don't like it."

Again, Toph had to feverishly ignore the second wave of warmth to wash over her. She scoffed once more and stomped over to the boy, poking him in the chest with every sentence. He was patient and tolerant, remaining still throughout her onslaught.

"I don't care if you don't like it or not. I said it's none of your business, so that means it's none of your business! I don't want to talk about-"

Suddenly, a deafening roar from above her made her jump up in surprise. With wide eyes she stared upwards.

"What was that?"

"Thunder."

Toph felt goosebumps rise up along the skin of her arms and she gritted her teeth. She hated thunder. She knew it was coming...but she couldn't tell when nor from where. That constant, stressful expectation of having something scare her senseless was taxing – and the last thing she needed.

"It's okay to be scared, Toph."

"Scared? Who said I was scared?" Even as she spoke, the girl realized her faults. In her surprise, she'd nearly jumped onto Aang, and now had fistfuls of his shirt in her hands. She'd tensed up at the sound and cast a frightened stare to the sky. The air bender was perceptive, he wouldn't have missed these massive hints to Toph's discomfort. Thankfully, he seemed to understand and didn't let the conversation linger too much on the subject.

"It's going to start raining soon..." Aang said softly, reaching for the girl's wrists in order to gently pull them from his shirt. "Katara and Sokka should be fine in the shelter you made...but we're out in the open..."

"So? Let's just go back to the shelter, then!" Toph turned to leave, only to find Aang still held firmly to one of her wrists. When she turned back in surprise, he shook his head. The earthbender narrowed her eyes. "What?"

"Toph, if you don't tell _someone_, they're not going to go away..."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Toph..."

"I'm going back to sleep, twinkle toes, if you want to stay out here and get rained on, that's fine by me."

"Okay." Toph could only stare ahead in disbelief as Aang released her wrist and settled himself onto the ground. Attempting to stay true to her words, Toph began to back up as if planning to return to their shelter. She waited for the young monk to rise and follow, or give any indication that he wasn't going to sit out there because she'd put the notion in his head.

She stopped after a few steps, attention still devoted to the boy who sat patiently awaiting the rain. He wasn't kept waiting for very long. With a faint rumble, the skies opened up, drenching both children with water. Still, the air bender did not move. He simply sat relaxed under the downpour, facing Toph as she stood in the same weather, somehow unable to move.

"You're going to get soaked," she observed critically, wrinkling her nose.

"So are you," he returned. Toph had a feeling he was smiling – she could hear it in his voice.

"Fine. Get sick for all I care."

"Weren't you going back?"

"I am."

"Okay then."

"I'm going now."

"Then go."

"Fine!"

"Fine."

Toph turned with a stomp and began to march her way back to the shelter, but her resolve only lasted a few steps. She slowed, shoulders hunched and her head low, standing still in the rain. Knowing the air bender, he would sit out there until Toph fell asleep, or until it stopped raining or morning came. He was likely trying to prove some stupid point, or get her to talk for his sake. She _knew_ what he was trying to do, she was just convinced she wasn't going to fall for it.

She was wrong.

The earth bender huffed and turned. She marched not to the shelter, but instead right up to the Avatar.

"I thought you were going back?"

"Shut up." Toph plopped down in front of him, punching her fists outward as she did. Under her command, two stone slabs rose out of the dirt and met at a point above the youths' heads. Aang tilted his head back as the downpour stopped, but Toph was not finished. She hit her palms against the ground beneath her, causing two more stone walls to rise from the earth and seal them inside her earth tent.

"I can't see." Aang said.

"You don't have to," Toph returned.

They sat facing one another in their shared darkness, neither of them speaking for quite a while. Toph wasn't sure what to say. She didn't know how to react in this situation – she barely knew why _she_ had reacted the way that she did to his decision to sit out in the rain. What she did know was that Aang's heart rate had increased slightly, likely due to his nerves in this situation, but hers weren't much better off. They were warm and dry in their shelter, but the air between them was chilled and stressed.

Finally, Aang was the first to brave the silence with words.

"Do you miss them?" He asked.

Toph shook her head, only then remembering that it was likely he couldn't see it and his seismic sense was not developed enough to feel it, either.

"No...not really."

"Then why do you keep dreaming about them?"

Toph wrung her hands in front of her, before catching herself in the nervous act and scolding her habits.

Only to remember that Aang couldn't see it anyways.

"It's always the same dream..." she admitted quietly. "I'm back in front of my parents, telling them about my real life – the real me." She lowered her head and put her palms against the earth, spreading out her fingers and feeling for the minute vibrations of rain against the earth. "After I tell them...they forget about me...they tell me I'm not the daughter they know and love. That I'm a stranger."

"I'm sure your parents haven't stopped loving you."

"No, no. I know they do...I can feel it...but in my dream...they're not wrong, either."

"...I don't get it."

"Don't you see, Aang? I'm _not_ the girl they know, and not the girl they've given their love to for so long. The real me is a total stranger to them. Everything they thought I was...was just a lie. A big, giant, ugly lie I'd been keeping up for so long! How could they claim to know and love someone that doesn't exist? Simple. They can't."

Aang's heartbeat slowed significantly, and for the smallest of seconds Toph was concerned for him. She gripped at the earth tightly in her curled fingers, trying in vain to twist her expression out of the scared, pitiful look she knew she was wearing. She could only guess at Aang's reaction, too concerned with taming her own to properly analyze his.

But then again, he still couldn't see.

She inhaled slowly through her nose, and with her breath out, her tears resurfaced, drawing warm lines down her cheeks before pooling in the earth below. She didn't sob or shake, but the tears still fell, silent and controlled they were the only signs of her inner turmoil she let show, remembering that the only audience to them was as blind to the sight of it as she was.

"...Toph."

"Aang, don't. I know what you're going to say. They love me, they're just having trouble's understanding me, they'll come around, I have nothing to worry about, blah blah blah."

"Actually, no...that's not what I was going to say." There was a long pause – even the tears that had been thus far spilling from the girl's eyes halted momentarily. Every bit of life and reality in that small spaced seemed to hang off the young avatar's next words. "I think you're right."

Unable to stop herself, Toph let a sob escape from her lungs, too brief for her to properly contain. Her tears returned, falling faster now as if there was no longer any reason for her to hide them. Her hands moved up from the earth to her eyes, wiping at her cheeks with the back of her wrists. Her lips quivered, but she managed to maintain the silence after her one, foolish emotional slip-up.

But Aang was observant, he'd noticed something was wrong even before the sudden noise cut through the dark. He shifted onto his knees, leaning forward to wrap his arms around the smaller child, pulling her close to him in a comforting hug. One arm remained around her waist, the other guiding his hand to rest on the back of her head, keeping her against him.

At first, she struggled lamely, twisting her shoulders and worming her hands between them, trying to push him away. Eventually, when she realized he was holding firm, her struggles weakened. She refused to sob any further, so she simply went limp, unable to stop the tears but able to maintain her silence. For a while, the only sound in the little earth tent was the rain pounding on the walls overhead.

"You're right," the boy repeated at last, slowly releasing the girl in his arms. His hands came to rest on her shoulders, as if he were holding her upright. "You're not the girl your parents have come to know...but that doesn't mean they can't love you anymore. They need time to adjust to such a big change...and you need time to figure out who _you_ really are. Is the girl you were pretending to be really just a fabrication? Was she not still a part of you?"

Toph said nothing, mulling his words over in her mind in total silence.

"The Toph we know and the Toph your parents know are the same person in the end, right? You're not two, different people. You're one person with many sides – and you're not the only one. I'm sure your parents will come to realize this soon, and in the meantime – you need to realize it as well. You're the one having these dreams, so you're the one who's really conflicted. Who you were and who you are may be different, but they were both Toph Bei Fong. You were, and always will be, Toph."

Opening her mouth to say something, the earth bender found herself lost for words. No sound came out of her throat, she couldn't even properly grasp at a coherent thought without it falling apart within her mind. The boy had gone and stolen her voice with his. Air had left her breathless.

She clenched her fists, shutting her mouth and glaring ahead – not at the boy, though not quite sure at what. She forced herself to breathe evenly again, forced her thoughts to straighten themselves out and produce something that made sense and finally, she forced herself to speak.

"I...I...you..." She breathed in, then out. She had the feeling Aang was smiling again. "You're cheesy and sentimental and lame," she managed, giving him a light, playful shove. He laughed and she continued, humbled and sincere. "Thank you."

Now she was sure Aang was smiling.

"Don't mention it."

He shifted, as if this suddenly meant the tent would be lowered and he could leave. However, Toph was not yet ready to lower the tent, and instead she reached forward with her hands and pressed down on his shoulders, keeping him rooted.

"What?" He asked.

"Stay still, Aang, I just want to see something."

"Uh...okay?"

Obediently the avatar stilled himself, propping his hands against his knees and staring ahead into the darkness where Toph's voice was coming from. When he was completely motionless and his breathing had steadied, the girl moved her hands from his shoulders to his neck, her fingers bracing themselves against his neck and jaw while her thumbs ghosted over his chin and lips.

She felt his heart flutter suddenly. He had definitely not been expecting the contact.

"Relax, twinkle toes." She shifted her grip, instead moving to run her fingers over his cheek bones to the bridge of his nose. Her touch was uncharacteristically gentle and careful, barely touching his skin at all. "Shut your eyes," she ordered as her hands continued to explore his face, fingertips breezing over his eyelids and up to his brow. Her own eyes were narrowed in concentration, her expression both curious and focused. Aang fidgeted, trying to remain still, but feeling awkward and burning with questions.

"What are you doing?" he asked as her hands cupped his ears then moved back to explore the shape of his eyes and nose. He was confident she could feel the heat of his face beneath her hands, but he refused to let the flush hinder his speech.

"Shush." Her fingers traced up and down his face, though this time they seemed less exploratory and more familiar with the surface they touched. She made a thoughtful noise, then put the entirety of her palms on the boy's cheeks, spreading out her fingers so that she covered his face entirely. She pulled her hands away, but only far enough so that the contact of their skin was extremely light. Toph still touched him, but only barely. "Smile, twinkletoes."

"W-What?" Aang's face was entirely warm now. The earth bender could feel his heart fluttering in his chest like a bird. His breath had become short and rushed.

"Smile for me, Aang."

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

His expression first turned to one of confusion, then the boy forced a chuckle. The sound eventually became genuine and preceded a wide, goofy smile. His smile was contagious, and Toph felt a grin of her own overcome her. She held her hands there for a few moments further before slowly bringing them back to herself. She giggled quietly, successfully confusing the poor boy in front of her. He leaned forward and studied the girl as best he could in the dark, only able to make out an outline of where she should be.

"What was that all about?" He asked, bringing his own hands to his cheeks and feeling a knot form in his stomach. He could definitely feel the heat there on his face. He was blushing.

"I was sick of looking at a blank face," the girl said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "My seismic sense lets me see you, but not all of you. Your face has always been fuzzy. The shape was there, but I couldn't see the details. Now I know what you look like, and what it's like when you smile."

"Oh...Well...uh..." Aang rubbed at the back of his neck, and for the first time Toph could clearly see an embarassed expression on the boy's face. She grinned.

"Didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, twinkletoes." Toph grinned further, knowing full well that her touch would've made the boy feel uneasy. At the time, she just hadn't given it the thought. Now it served as an amusement to her.

"You didn't! Well...not really. Sort of, maybe. Kinda...a little...Yeah. Okay, yeah." The boy laughed nervously. "It just would've been nice to have had some warning."

"Bah." Toph punched outwards and the walls behind them receded back into the ground. The rain hadn't stopped. "Where's the fun in that?" With another quick movement, the walls around them vanished entirely. They sat once again in the rain, but this time Aang was the first to rise, holding his hand out for her to take. She accepted it purely for formality's sake, pulling herself to her feet. He held on for a moment longer and Toph felt confident he was smiling.

She could see it.

Without releasing her hand, he guided her back to where Sokka and Katara had yet to stir. When they were safe under the shelter again, they turned to face each other once more. Without hesitation, they both put their hands together in respect and gave one another a little bow.

"Thank you, Aang."

They bid each one another goodnight and returned to their respective sleeping places. Toph curled up, unable to tame her smile as she took a long breath in. She shut her eyes, chuckling to herself as she returned to unconsciousness with such a silly thought on her mind.

_Air has a smile now._

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><p><strong>Aaaaaah. Why does this seem so...All over the place? I only just noticed it...Does this even make sense anymore?<strong>

**Anyways, this is my first time writing anything ATLA-related, I hope I didn't screw it up too badly. I'd very much love for you to share your opinions if you could. Just click the review button and pound out a few thoughts. I really want to know what people thought, this being my first and all. I can't help but to think people are out of character, but I think I can blame that on my inexperience writing them.**

**So pretty please, review. I read every one of them, I assure you, and everyone likes to know their work is appreciated.**

**Thanks so much for reading this far!**

**Toodles~**

**Shmee**


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